Lorna Goodison

Lorna Goodison was born in Jamaica, and has won numerous awards for her writing in both poetry and prose, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Musgrave Gold Medal from Jamaica, the Henry Russel Award for Exceptional Creative Work from the University of Michigan, and one of Canada’s largest literary prizes, the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Her work has been included in major anthologies and collections of contemporary poetry over the past twenty-five years. Along with her award-winning memoir, From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007), she has published three collections of short stories (including By Love Possessed, 2011) and nine collections of poetry. Her work has been translated into many languages. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica on 17 May 2017 and served until 2020.